pj: What is the "conventional" documentary format? By hatchet-job are you implying that Wiseman did not know what he was doing? Wiseman edited HIGH SCHOOL to present and illiustrate a certain ideology inherent in the institution. He uses the filmic language to do this in an original way. He doesn't follow the "conventional" format as you would want him to do; and that's why it's a classic. Jon Nealon